Panorama 40

The Attendant

A young white man visits a gallery of old master paintings. When the museum closes, he stays behind, arousing the sexual fantasies of an older black museum attendant. READ MORE…

Blue Diary

Director: Jenni Olson, USA, 1997

A lesbian spends a night with a straight woman. The next morning, she faces her unfulfilled expectations. READ MORE…

Buddies

Director: Arthur J. Bressan Jr.,USA, 1985

New York in the summer of 1985. What we now know to be the AIDS crisis is approaching its first peak. The realisation is a shock, albeit at this stage only for those affected. READ MORE…

Daddy and the Muscle Academy

Director: Ilppo Pohjola, Finland, 1991

In the late 1940s, the artist Tom of Finland began turning his sexual fantasies into drawings. He gained world renown with the publication of his work in American men’s magazines. Gay men began to shape their bodies, look and entire self-image according to his idealised views of masculine-looking men dressed in leather or uniform. READ MORE…

Das Geräusch Rascher Erlösung (The Sound of Fast Relief)

Director: Wieland Speck, Germany, 1982

After a flirtatious encounter, a young man finds it difficult to organise the hoped-for reunion with the object of his desire. Calls remain unanswered and he is left with only a drink, his bed and images of soldiers in combat to fill his inner void. READ MORE…

Fear of Disclosure

Directors: Phil Zwickler, David Wojnarowicz, USA, 1989

This was the first film to specifically address the difficulties in relationships between HIV-positive and HIV-negative men. Two go-go dancers assess each other’s mortality while the world rotates and a gay man reflects on the psychosocial consequences of the disclosure of his HIV infection. READ MORE…

Jean Genet is Dead

Director: Constantine Giannaris,United Kingdom, 1987

Young men find themselves scattered and defencelessly exposed to a merciless sun. Their gaze moves off searchingly into the distance. Deserted places appear to offer vague promises of refuge. READ MORE…

Les Nuits Fauves (Savage Nights)

Director: Cyril Collard, France/ Italy, 1992

After a film shoot in Morocco, Jean, a thirty-year-old cameraman, returns to Paris and throws himself into his old excessive ways, despite his HIV infection. Roaring through the night in his sports car he relentlessly pursues quick sex with men on the banks of the Seine, at the same time as loving Laura and being in a relationship with Samy. READ MORE…

The Making of Monsters

Director: John Greyson, Canada, 1990

In 1985, gay teacher Kenneth Zellers was murdered by five teenage boys in High Park, Toronto. In his experimental musical, John Greyson, enfant terrible of Canadian cinema, undertakes a comprehensive, activist’s analysis of the case. READ MORE…

The Man Who Drove With Mandela

In order to organise armed resistance against the apartheid regime in the early 1960s, Nelson Mandela travelled incognito through the country as the chauffeur of a renowned theatre director and committed freedom fighter. READ MORE…

Max

Director: Monika Treut, Germany, 1992

This documentary – probably the first cinematic portrait of a trans man – is one of numerous pioneering works by Monika Treut, who is herself an icon of emancipation movements. In this work, Native American Max Wolf Valerio reveals his journey into becoming a different gender. READ MORE…

Mitt liv som hund (My Life as a Dog)

Director: Lasse Hallström, Sweden, 1985

A small Swedish town in 1959. Twelve-year-old Ingemar lives with a dog, his brother and his mother; she is suffering from tuberculosis and is at her wits’ end on account of his escapades. When her health deteriorates, Ingemar is sent away to live with his uncle in the country. READ MORE…

Self-Portrait in 23 Rounds: a Chapter in David Wojnarowicz’s Life, 1989–1991

Director: Marion Scemama, France, 2018

Political artist, painter, writer, performer and photographer David Wojnarowicz was one of the leading personalities of the 1980s New York art scene. READ MORE…

Split – William to Chrysis; Portrait of a Drag Queen

Director: Ellen Fisher Turk, Andrew Weeks, USA, 1992

A cinematic tribute to transgender celebrity International Chrysis (1951-1990). Rejected by his parents, this effeminate Bronx boy was desperate to be more than just William, and so he created Chrysis. With bright red hair, a voluptuous bosom and disarming smile, she made a living as a sex worker and began conquering the stages of ever larger Manhattan nightclubs. READ MORE…

Sto dnei do prikaza (100 Days Before the Command)

Director: Khusein Erkenov, Russian Federation, 1990

Five young soldiers in the Soviet army find themselves exposed to a cycle of constant violence. Rebelling in various ways against humiliation and the assault on their dignity, they somehow manage to seize carefree moments of intimacy. READ MORE…

Willkommen im Dom (Welcome to the Dome)

Director: Jochen Hick, Germany, 1991

A rare record of the German Act-Up (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power) movement: At the closing prayer of the German Bishops’ Conference on 26 September. READ MORE…

YE (The Night)

Director: Zhou Hao, People’s Republic of China, 2014

A young man stands before his mirror. The night belongs to him. Self-love and longing. Every evening he admires himself in a different outfit before leaving his apartment and waiting for clients in a dimly lit alley. READ MORE…